Mariners turn tranquil Wednesday into cardiac stress test

I hope my insurance premiums don’t go up after today’s game

Humans always err toward superlatives.

Okay, humans tend to err toward superlatives. The NBA playoffs happening right now are a reminder that with each sports season come new narratives. Everything has to fit into the context of history, and the things that are happening right now loom largest in our minds. Depending on who you ask, Nikola Jokić is the best center in basketball/this decade/this millennium/in basketball history. Likewise, every great catch in a baseball game could be the best catch ever, or the best catch in franchise history, or even just the best catch this season.

It’s an annoying habit primarily driven by people whose job is content creation.

[looks in the mirror]

Actually, it’s important to use historical context to inform what we see in each game, and those who generate those comparisons are doing an important service for those who consume and enjoy sports content!

With that important thesis in mind: today’s Mariners game felt like one of the most stressful this season/decade/in franchise history/in baseball history, though the numbers say it was fine, actually.

All eyes were on Bryan Woo today, who was pulled early from his season debut last weekend after experiencing forearm tightness and a significant drop in fastball velocity mid-game. The Mariners haven’t given themselves much margin for error recently, and any injury has felt like it could have an outsized impact. Would Woo bounce back? Would his velocity be back to normal?

The answers, at least at first, were yes and yes. Within the first inning, Woo’s fastball velocity reached as high as 95.7 MPH (his average last year was 95.1 MPH). He retired the first four batters he faced, including this nasty strikeout of Royals star Bobby Witt Jr.

The second inning went much the same. Kansas City second baseman Michael Massey managed a bunt single, but the other Royals three were retired in order. Woo’s third inning was equally dominant, as was the fourth. As was the fifth. Barely more than an hour after the game started, fans could look up at the scoreboard and see that Woo had made it through five innings on just 57 pitches.

Meanwhile, the offense continued its community theater production of Waiting for Godot. Julio Rodríguez singled again and was caught stealing again to end the first inning. The team got runners on the corners with no outs in the second, but would have blown the scoring opportunity entirely had Adam Frazier not bobbled a Luis Urías ground ball with two outs, which allowed a lone runner to score. An uneventful third inning passed before Ty France came up in the fourth and continued to show that he still has a pulse.

That home run made it 2-0, which despite Woo’s dominance, didn’t feel at all safe after yesterday’s minor implosion.

Whether that dominance would have continued into the sixth, we’ll never know.

Home plate umpire Jim Wolf took a foul ball to the mask in the fifth inning and was ultimately removed from the game after he appeared dazed. This resulted in a somewhat lengthy delay while first base umpire Ryan Blakney suited up to replace Wolf behind the plate. A long delay was Woo’s undoing last week: a big Mariners inning had caused Woo to sit on the bench for a long time, his arm tightened up, and he was pulled shortly thereafter. There was, therefore, some concern that he would be similarly affected today.

Was he? Well, maybe.

He thankfully appeared uninjured. Unlike last week, wherein his velocity dropped to the high 80’s, he was able to sit around 95-96 MPH after today’s delay. Unfortunately, his control appeared to suffer for it. He gave up his first non-bunt single to Freddy Fermin, he walked his first batter of the game in Kyle Isbel, and then gave up another single to Adam Frazier to load the bases. With the bases loaded, nobody out, and stud Bobby Witt Jr. at the plate to face a wild Woo for the third time today, you’d have been forgiven for catastrophizing a bit.

Witt worked a 3-2 count off of Woo before hitting a high fastball to straightaway center field. Thankfully, he didn’t get all of it. The ball landed harmlessly in Julio’s glove, scoring a single run. With that, Woo’s day was done. In came former Royal Gabe Speier to face the heart of the lineup. Speier pitched like a man aggrieved by the Royals, which I suppose he was when they DFA’d him two years ago.

First baseman Vinny Pasquantino badly mistimed a 2-2 slider from Speier, popping out weakly to Cal Raleigh. Up came the right handed Salvador Pérez. You would be forgiven for seeing Pérez’s 177 wRC+ against lefties and again catastrophizing. Speier, however, was unphased. An opening slider out of the zone provoked a swing from Pérez. A second slider caught the corner for strike two. A third slider dropped out of the bottom of the zone, leaving Pérez’s bat flailing helplessly over the top. Strike three.

Two innings later, the Mariners expanded their lead to 3-1 following a Josh Rojas single to score the just-called-up Dom Canzone. This would prove important after Austin Voth suffered a bit of a melt down in the eighth inning. After an opening bunt single by Freddy Fermin, Voth lucked into a loud out before an Adam Frazier double put runners at second and third. With the tying run in scoring position for Bobby Witt Jr. (how is he allowed to always be up?), Scott Servais had to once again call upon closer Andrés Muñoz for a long save opportunity.

Muñoz rose to the challenge, and then some. Witt reached for a slider away, poking a ball right at Josh Rojas. A run scored, but only one. Pasquantino struck out swinging with one of the more embarrassing swings in memory, and the threat was vanquished.

The Mariners managed an insurance run in their half of the eighth for good measure, with a Luke Raley single scoring Leo Rivas (who was pinch running for Mitch Haniger).

Sal Pérez annoyingly opened the ninth inning with a double off Muñoz, but thankfully the Royals lineup pretty much seems to end there. Michael Massey flew out and Hunter Renfroe managed to reach on a throwing error by Luis Urías. Muñoz summoned his inner Furious George Kirby, though, and hucked two 98 MPH fastballs in the zone to put M.J. Melendez in an 0-2 hole before striking him out on a slider out of the zone. That just left poor Freddy Fermin, who worked a 2-2 count before Muñoz blew him away with a 99 MPH fastball right down the middle.

The Mariners won without ever trailing. In fact, their win probability never dropped below 50%. The game certainly didn’t feel that way, though. A matinee against the Kansas City Royals would, in other years, have had a sleepy feel to it. Instead, today’s game felt as intense as any mid-May game I can remember. Maybe even the most intense ever.

Some additional game notes:

• When asked how he dug in there at the end of the game, Muñoz indeed invoked George Kirby, saying: “When I am angry, when I am like George, I feel like I’m able to do everything better, and when I try to give 100% every pitch, that is when the results come.”
• I was keeping an eye on Woo’s changeup usage after our own Zach Mason published this excellence piece this morning. Woo only threw four changeups today, though he was fairly successful with the pitch. We’ll have to see whether he goes to it more in the future.
• Asked how he handled the delay today after tightening up last week, Woo credited the training staff, saying he tried all kinds of stuff, including using a hot pack, throwing weighted balls between innings, and working on his breathing and heart rate. “Credit to the training staff,” he said, “they came up with a couple of ideas that we tried.”